Jessica & Jordan (Altadena, CA)
Cammy & Dhalsim
Jessica
Well, at the time, Super Street Fighter 4 was coming out and we were getting hyped for that. We had planned for several of our friends to do certain characters, based on who looked alike, but in the end, Jordan and I were the only ones that worked on it. Cammy was my first cosplay.
I didn't have the skills yet to construct the costume as good as I hoped. The gauntlets were literally cardboard, bottle caps, and duct tape paper mached together and then spray painted. The bodysuit was pre made and we drew lines with a black sharpie. I've made an alternate Cammy cosplay since then and those gauntlets we constructed with craft foam, covered in guesso, sanded, and painted red. Results were much better and didn't leave big bruises on my wrists from being soo heavy!
I'm sure everyone says this, but I'm fascinated with bringing cartoon characters to life. When a person's face lights up when they see you, and they share the same love for that character, it's amazing. It's really fun and challenging to create costumes.
Jordan
I am cosplaying Dhalsim from the Street Fighter series. Being a big Street Fighter fan, I’ve grown up playing the games, and Dhalsim has always been one of my favorites. With his stretchy limbs and fire breathing abilities, he has always been one of the more interesting characters to me. Because he and I share a few looks in common, my small and thin size, and tan skin, I thought it would be a great idea to cosplay him!
Making the outfit was not difficult at all, I assumed it would be much harder to put together because I had no idea how I would do a few of the props, such as the skull necklace and the bracelets, but things fell together nicely. Since I started putting together the costume around Halloween of 2009, I easily found some skulls that matched the look I needed at Party City, and for a good price. The bracelets were simply dog toys I painted silver!
People freaked out when they saw me, and it caught me by surprise the entire time! No one had seen a Dhalsim cosplayer before. There are a few in the world, but not many people dare to do it. There was even one kid who ran up and hugged me whenever he saw me at the con, which would scare me quite often because he would run up out of nowhere and surprise me. People shouting at me from all over, asking me to do Dhalsim’s victory dance or shout “Yoga Flame!” or “Yoga Fire!” It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed making people happy during the con.
I started in 2006, and to be honest, I had never even heard of cosplay before that. A group of friends in High School would tell me all these awesome stories they had at Anime Expo, back when it was in Anaheim mind you, but that got me interested. I have always had a flair for the dramatic, and I thought this would be a fun and new experience. To pretend to be someone or something else for a weekend seemed exciting! It’s been a blast ever since!
Cosplay means a lot to me. I’ve made so many new friends because of it, doors have opened for me and it gives me the option to be creative and flashy. This hobby is by far the most productive one I have ever had, and then being able to put on your hard work and walk around in it and have people recognize you, and maybe even compliment you on your work, it feels great!
